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Post by brobear on Aug 13, 2022 1:21:01 GMT -5
This Is Why Orcas Are Called Killer Whales siamtoo.com/5902/ Killer whales rule the sea thanks to their impressive physical characteristics. They can grow to be nearly as long as a school bus and weigh up to 12,000 pounds. They also possess a mouth full of sharp teeth that can grow to be four inches long.
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Post by brobear on Aug 14, 2022 12:02:59 GMT -5
"A dead minke whale floating five miles off Old Orchard Beach was photographed by University of New England Marine Biologist James Sulikowski on Friday. Sulikowski said the significant bite marks near the 25-foot whale's fin indicate it was attacked by a great white shark." "University of New England professor James Sulikowski measured the bites on the dead Minke whale at 18 inches across, and estimated the great white shark that bit it to be 12-14 feet long." *Here is yet another classic case of a predator observed feeding upon the carcass of a dead animal and it being assumed that the predator attacked and killed the now dead animal. Maybe the shark ambushed and killed this small baleen whale and maybe the shark discovered the dead body of the whale floating on the surface. We will never know for sure. www.pressherald.com/2018/07/27/researcher-great-white-shark-chomped-on-whale-found-off-old-orchard-beach/
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2022 10:59:46 GMT -5
Here is a 3D modeling concerning Otodus Megalodon in a new study: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9424. Their model provide a mass about 61650kg along with a length of 15,9 meters. For comparison, an orca has a mean mass between 3,620 to 5,440 kg. Impressive animal.
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Post by brobear on Aug 20, 2022 0:00:58 GMT -5
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9424 Abstract (from site found by hibernours) Although shark teeth are abundant in the fossil record, their bodies are rarely preserved. Thus, our understanding of the anatomy of the extinct Otodus megalodon remains rudimentary. We used an exceptionally well-preserved fossil to create the first three-dimensional model of the body of this giant shark and used it to infer its movement and feeding ecology. We estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators. A dietary preference for large prey potentially enabled O. megalodon to minimize competition and provided a constant source of energy to fuel prolonged migrations without further feeding. Together, our results suggest that O. megalodon played an important ecological role as a transoceanic superpredator. Hence, its extinction likely had large impacts on global nutrient transfer and trophic food webs.
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Post by brobear on Aug 25, 2022 12:12:13 GMT -5
Fossils of giant sea lizard that ruled the oceans 66 million years ago discovered www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220824152316.htm Researchers have discovered a huge new mosasaur from Morocco, named Thalassotitan atrox, which filled the apex predator niche. With massive jaws and teeth like those of killer whales, Thalassotitan hunted other marine reptiles -- plesiosaurs, sea turtles, and other mosasaurs. At the end of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago, sea monsters really existed. While dinosaurs flourished on land, the seas were ruled by the mosasaurs, giant marine reptiles. Mosasaurs weren't dinosaurs, but enormous marine lizards growing up to 12 metres (40 feet) in length. They were distant relatives of modern iguanas and monitor lizards. Mosasaurs looked like a Komodo dragon with flippers instead of legs, and a shark-like tail fin. Mosasaurs became larger and more specialised in the last 25 million years of the Cretaceous, taking niches once filled by marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some evolved to eat small prey like fish and squid. Others crushed ammonites and clams. The new mosasaur, named Thalassotitan atrox, evolved to prey on all the other marine reptiles. The remains of the new species were dug up in Morocco, about an hour outside Casablanca. Here, near the end of the Cretaceous, the Atlantic flooded northern Africa. Nutrient rich waters upwelling from the depths fed blooms of plankton. Those fed small fish, feeding larger fish, which fed mosasaurs and plesiosaurs -- and so on, with these marine reptiles becoming food for the giant, carnivorous Thalassotitan. Thalassotitan, had an enormous skull measuring 1.4 metres (5 feet long), and grew to nearly 30 feet (9 metres) long, the size of a killer whale. While most mosasaurs had long jaws and slender teeth for catching fish, Thalassotitan had a short, wide muzzle and massive, conical teeth like those of an orca. These let it seize and rip apart huge prey. These adaptations suggest Thalassotitan was an apex predator, sitting at the top of the food chain. The giant mosasaur occupied the same ecological niche as today's killer whales and great white sharks. Thalassotitan's teeth are often broken and worn, however eating fish wouldn't have produced this sort of tooth wear. Instead, this suggests that the giant mosasaur attacked other marine reptiles, chipping, breaking, and grinding its teeth as it bit into their bones and tore them apart. Some teeth are so heavily damaged they have been almost ground down to the root. Fossilised remains of prey Remarkably, possible remains of Thalassotitan's victims have been discovered. Fossils from the same beds show damage from acids, with teeth and bone eaten away. Fossils with this peculiar damage include large predatory fish, a sea turtle, a half-meter long plesiosaur head, and jaws and skulls of at least three different mosasaur species. They would have been digested in Thalassotitan's stomach before it spat out their bones. "It's circumstantial evidence," said Dr Nick Longrich, Senior Lecturer from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath and lead author on the study, published in Cretaceous Research. "We can't say for certain which species of animal ate all these other mosasaurs. But we have the bones of marine reptiles killed and eaten by a large predator. "And in the same location, we find Thalassotitan, a species that fits the profile of the killer -- it's a mosasaur specialised to prey on other marine reptiles. That's probably not a coincidence." Thalassotitan was a threat to everything in the oceans -- including other Thalassotitan. The huge mosasaurs bear injuries sustained in violent combat with other mosasaurs, with injuries to their face and jaws sustained in fights. Other mosasaurs show similar injuries, but in Thalassotitan these wounds were exceptionally common, suggesting frequent, intense fights over feeding grounds or mates. "Thalassotitan was an amazing, terrifying animal," said Dr Nick Longrich, who led the study. "Imagine a Komodo Dragon crossed with a great white shark crossed with a T. rex crossed with a killer whale." The new mosasaur lived in the final million years of the Age of Dinosaurs, a contemporary of animals like T. rex and Triceratops. Along with recent discoveries of mosasaurs from Morocco, it suggests that mosasaurs weren't in decline before the asteroid impact that drove the Cretaceous mass extinction. Instead, they flourished. Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil, a co-author on the paper from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, said: "The phosphate fossils of Morocco offer an unparalleled window on the paleobiodiversity at the end of Cretaceous. "They tell us how life was rich and diversified just before the end of the 'dinosaur era', where animals had to specialise to have a place in their ecosystems. Thalassotitan completes the picture by taking on the role of the megapredator at the top of the food chain." "There's so much more to be done," said Longrich. "Morocco has one of the richest and most diverse marine faunas known from the Cretaceous. We're just getting started understanding the diversity and the biology of the mosasaurs."
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Post by brobear on Aug 25, 2022 12:13:05 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2022 13:58:48 GMT -5
Good news. Of course we are far from the giant mosasaur in Jurassic World which is bigger than a blue whale (it's so ridiculous). Here we have a real animal. But if we know his body length, it's quite challenging to deduce his mass, like all others extinct animals.
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Post by brobear on Sept 2, 2022 6:56:25 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Sept 11, 2022 2:07:11 GMT -5
Sharks and Dolphins
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Post by brobear on Sept 11, 2022 13:27:13 GMT -5
Terrifying megalodon attack on whale revealed in 15 million-year-old fossils www.livescience.com/megalodon-vs-whale-failed-predation?fbclid=IwAR3ytcq6J2CqZZ24TkQbQFtYlpOVzfUYx1arAwv9RImUpz7flzU5kiyr7CY&utm_campaign=socialflow About 15 million years ago in a warm coastal sea covering what is now southern Maryland, the ocean surface suddenly erupted in a violent upheaval as a shark the size of a five-story building — the mighty and massive megalodon (Otodus megalodon) — launched itself at a whale near the surface, clamping its 250 serrated teeth around the whale's midsection. As the struggling pair broke the surface in a bloody breach, the force of the attack bent the whale's back and caused a violent compression fracture. That's the scenario proposed by scientists who recently examined two of the whale's fractured vertebrae and one megalodon tooth, which were found close together in Maryland's Calvert Cliffs, a site dating to the Miocene epoch (23 million to 5.3 million years ago). The researchers described the whale's injuries — and what might have caused them — in a new study, published online Aug. 25 in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica(opens in new tab). "We only have circumstantial evidence, but it's damning circumstantial evidence," said Stephen J. Godfrey, a curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland and lead author of the study. "This is how we see the story unfolding," Godfrey told Live Science. "Although there are limitations to what we can claim, and we want the evidence to speak for itself." The scant remains of what was likely a 13-foot (4 meters) whale, dating to about 15 million years ago, were initially discovered by Mike Ellwood, a Calvert Marine Museum volunteer and fossil collector. It was not possible to determine if the specimen was a toothed whale, a baleen whale or even a large dolphin, but Godfrey was instantly enthralled nonetheless. "In terms of the fossils we've seen on Calvert Cliffs, this kind of injury is exceedingly rare," he said. "The injury was so nasty, so clearly the result of serious trauma, that I wanted to know the backstory." Godfrey suspected that he might learn more by looking inside the damaged vertebrae with CT scans, and a local hospital offered to help assess the fossil with modern medical imaging techniques. The scans showed a textbook compression fracture — a type of break in which vertebrae crumble and collapse — that was so distinctive in its pattern as to be instantly recognizable. "Any radiologist would look at this and recognize the pathology," Godfrey said. The scientists also discovered that the membrane surrounding the bone, known as the periosteum, had produced new bone after the injury. Regardless of whether the periosteal bone formed to repair the wound, as it often does in humans, or as the result of an infection or arthritis, the growth of new bone post-injury suggests that the whale lived for several weeks after experiencing the fracture. But as compelling as the megalodon hypothesis may be, other factors could have fractured the whale's vertebrae millions of years ago. Extinct marine megafauna other than a megalodon — such as its close relative Otodus chubutensis, the false mako shark (Parotodus benedenii), the Miocene white shark (Carcharodon hastalis) or even a macroraptorial sperm whale (Physeteroidea) — could have delivered similarly punishing blows. It's even possible that the whale ingested toxic algae and vigorously convulsed until the animal essentially broke its own back, the study authors suggested. But Godfrey thinks a megalodon attack is the most plausible explanation. For one thing, there's the sheer magnitude of the trauma — one vertebra actually telescoped inward from the force of the other vertebra smashing into it. "It's just so over the top in terms of the violence," Godfrey said, adding that it's hard to imagine any seizure or convulsion packing such a punch. And then there's the megalodon tooth, found alongside the vertebrae. Closer examination of the tooth revealed that its tip broke off during the Miocene, likely after striking something like bone. And while it is possible that a Miocene megalodon may have simply shed its old tooth while swimming over a long-dead whale carcass, or lost it while hunting an injured whale and feeding on its remains, it is tempting to reconstruct a scene in which the apex predator of the day blunted and ultimately lost its tooth while dealing the compression fracture itself. "We don't know the full repertoire of predatory techniques that megalodon could have employed, but it's possible that, like living sharks, they ambushed their prey from below," Godfrey said. During a high-energy breach with prey between its jaws, he explained, the megalodon could have easily flexed the whale's backbone against gravity with enough force to create the observed injuries. But Godfrey isn't ruling out alternative explanations. "Our paper covers the breadth and scope of the conditions that could have caused this kind of damage, and hopefully that will spur further research," he said. "These are amazing stories. We get to tell the initial story, but whether that turns out to be the best explanation really remains to be seen."
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Post by brobear on Sept 11, 2022 15:11:28 GMT -5
Lolita the Orca Whale May Return to the Wild After 5 Decades in Captivity at Miami Seaquarium Home animals Lolita the Orca Whale May Return to the Wild After 5 Decades in Captivity at Miami Seaquarium August 25, 2022 The elderly killer whale may soon make its way back to the seas off the Pacific Northwest coast, where Lolita's mother supposedly still resides. Lolita the killer whale may return to the ocean and maybe reunite with her elderly mother 52 years after being brought into captivity. According to The Guardian, activists are making progress in their decades-long effort to free Lolita, also known as Tokitae or Toki, who was taken from the wild and brought to the Miami Seaquarium in 1970. According to the publication, the 56-year-old orca has been living and performing in what has been called the tiniest tank in North America for captive killer whales since 1970. Lolita's health has fluctuated throughout the years. Despite having outlived her tankmate Hugo, specialists have said the elderly whale is in "remarkably good form," according to the newspaper. After continuously banging his head against his enclosure, he passed away in 1980 as the result of a cerebral aneurysm. Howard Garrett, a whale researcher and Orca Network campaigner who has fought for Lolita's release since 1995, told The Guardian that she "is a miracle every day." "She is still alive, which is against all chances. Her mental health, in my opinion, is what maintains her physical health. "She's not withdrawn, neurotic, or exhibiting any stereotypical behavior that would point to any type of brain damage brought on by being held captive," he added. She could be an absolute exception in terms of maintaining her health. She was fed less than was advised and wasn't drinking enough water, according to a USDA investigation that faulted the Miami Seaquarium's treatment of the animal last year. According to the report, the attending veterinarian was also concerned that Toki wasn't getting enough water (because marine animals absorb water from fish for their hydration needs) and that the lack of meal volume would make her uncomfortable and agitated. Officials in Norway killed Freya the Walrus due to concerns about public safety. "The AV also had problems with the Training Curator mandating the inclusion of rapid swims and huge jumps throughout training sessions and shows for this elderly whale," the statement stated. The AV was concerned that Toki's irregular bloodwork may lead to over-exertion and winding, which was in fact noticed by both the senior trainer and the AV. The AV determined that Toki had likely struck her lower jaw at the bottom flume or bulkhead while brisk swimming. According to Toki's medical records, she had lower mandibular injuries on February 25, March 10, April 6, and April 7, 2021. According to The Guardian, campaigners are optimistic about Lolita's ultimate release to free seas as a result of the report's conclusions and the fact that the facility's new owners are amenable to the possibility of releasing the whale. Never miss a story again by subscribing to PEOPLE's free daily email and staying up to speed on all the publication has to offer. Lolita may soon be reunited with her mother, a 93-year-old whale known as L25 or "Ocean Sun," even though restoring her to her former environment entails hazards, according to Newsweek. According to Newsweek, the senior animal still apparently roams the Salish Sea's waters close to Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, in charge of a pod of southern resident killer whales.
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Post by brobear on Sept 11, 2022 15:22:40 GMT -5
Whales used to walk on land, Egyptian researchers identify new fossils siamtoo.com/11393/ Whales weren’t always just aquatic animals, as newly identified fossils have revealed that whales once had legs and walked on land. Egyptian scientists have published a new study claiming that whales weren’t always exclusively aquatic animals – they once walked on land. The new study has been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B and details the discovery of a fossil that was uncovered from the dirt in 2008. The fossil was found in the Western Desert, and since its discovery, researchers have assembled a team and begun their examination. Their findings were published in the aforementioned journal just last month. According to the team’s leading paleontologist, Hesham Sallam, “This is the first time in the history of Egyptian vertebrate paleontology to have an Egyptian team leading a documentation of a new genus and species of four-legged whale.” The researchers say the creature lived 43 million years ago, and has expanded human knowledge on the evolution of whales and how the species went from herbivore land mammals into the carnivorous giants of the ocean we know today. Jonathan Geisler, an expert on the evolutionary history of mammals with the New York Institute of Technology, said, “This is yet another new species of early whales from the time when they retained four functional limbs.”
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Post by skibidibopmmdada on Sept 11, 2022 19:33:16 GMT -5
Lord help whatever species lived near these things.
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Post by brobear on Sept 26, 2022 11:29:41 GMT -5
Hundreds of killer whales gather together in Norway in what could be the largest orca pod to ever be filmed. mmmusicslover.xyz/largest-orca-pod-in-history-caught-on-camera-off-the-coast-of-norway-video/?fbclid=IwAR13yTjW6j0Y4taNmS_41nGUIESjdMfTI092uVuioa2ZpCO8MHSfm29IqRU We understand orcas to usually gather in much smaller groups, so naturally, this huge pod of orcas raised some questions. So why are they all gathering together? The Orca Megapod Mystery | The Child Should See This. Well, the first theory was that they could be a big extended family. To inform if this is true, researchers listened to the orcas’ calls to each other. Orcas in a family normally talk in a similar dialect. But after listening for a little bit, it was clear that there were lots of various dialects, hinting they are all from different families. So instead of this being one big pod, it remains in truth a collection of several pods coming together in this area, and this is uncommon in orca behavior. Could they have met for mating purposes? Orcas are pretty secretive with their breeding practices. However we understand that they do prefer to breed in warmer waters and in the springtime, whereas this video was captured in the winter, it seems like it’s the wrong time of year for romance. What about a potential feeding frenzy? The video does show a lot of birds circling overhead which can show that there might be a lot of food down below. In this part of Norway, the fish is probably herring, which is an orca fave. However it doesn’t look like they are herding them as they normally would as the video shows no tail slapping. Instead, you can see the fishing boats distant, they will usually break the nets and take some fish for themselves. These smart animals have learned what fishing boats sound like, and therefore have grouped up as they recognized there would be food here.
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Post by skibidibopmmdada on Sept 26, 2022 12:07:41 GMT -5
We need more stuff about orcas in this forum.
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Post by brobear on Sept 27, 2022 3:45:47 GMT -5
Newfound 'snaky croc-face' sea monster unearthed in Wyoming www.livescience.com/long-necked-plesiosaur-wyoming?fbclid=IwAR3U8XM3jF1csLD5XQ2lKPU3giWtGztTWesfN5tsR0aZnSJ0ue0mvlm3MEo&utm_campaign=socialflow Millions of years ago, an enormous, long-necked marine reptile undulated through the waters of an ancient seaway in what is now Wyoming, whipping its snaky neck back and forth and using its crocodilelike jaws to snap up fish and other small sea creatures. Paleontologists discovered fossils of this sinuous sea monster in 1995 during a dig in the minimally explored uppermost portion of Pierre Shale, a geological formation dating to the Upper Cretaceous period (approximately 101 million to 66 million years ago). And unlike other plesiosaurs, this animal had physical characteristics that set it apart from other members of this extinct clade of marine reptiles. Now, researchers have revealed their findings about this new species in a study published online Sept. 26 in the journal iScience. "Plesiosaurs typically come in two distinct flavors or morphological types and have either a long, snakelike neck with a small head, or a short neck and a long crocodilelike jaw," Walter Scott Persons IV, a paleontologist from the College of Charleston in South Carolina and the study's lead author, told Live Science. "In this case, this weird, unique beast is a cross between the two." Paleontologists dubbed the animal Serpentisuchops pfisterae, which translates to "snaky crocface." This 23-foot-long (7 meter) creature's remains have been on display in the Glenrock Paleontological Museum near Casper, Wyoming, since the fossils were unearthed more than 25 years ago. "The first time I saw Serpentisuchops pfisterae," Persons said, "I was still in elementary school." In the decades since, paleontologists have conducted detailed studies of the animal's remains, which represent about 35% of the body and include its "beautifully preserved lower jaw, sizable amount of its skull, its complete neck, vertebrae, the majority of its tail and some ribs," Persons said. "The only pieces that we're missing are elements of its limbs or paddles," which it used for swimming, he added. Also found at the shale-rich site — described by Persons as resembling "the surface of the moon" or "a trip to Mordor" — were 19 teeth; just one was still in place in the specimen's jaw, while the rest were scattered among the remains. However, according to the study, the presence of roots in the jaw confirmed that the teeth were from this particular specimen and not another plesiosaur. "The tall, conical teeth are smooth and not serrated with a cutting edge, so this animal wouldn't have been able to bite through thick bones," he said. "The teeth had a single function, which was to do a very good job at stabbing and skewering prey. It likely went after slippery prey that wouldn't put up much of a fight, such as small fish or abundant cephalopods." This new finding "reveals a whole new ecotype, an animal that is specialized in a way that's different from all the other plesiosaurs that were around at the same time," with adaptations, " to do something different and become good at making a living amongst the other animals that shared its environment," he said. Originally published on Live Science.
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Post by brobear on Sept 27, 2022 3:46:20 GMT -5
An artist's rendition of what the plesiosaur may have looked like millions of years ago. (Image credit: Nathan Rogers)
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Post by brobear on Oct 5, 2022 1:40:11 GMT -5
Detailed observation of orcas hunting white sharks in South Africa Date: October 4, 2022 www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/10/221004175814.htm The first direct evidence of orcas killing white sharks in South Africa has been captured by both a helicopter and drone pilot, and a new open-access paper published today in The Ecological Society of America's journal Ecology presents both sets of video footage, which provide new evidence that orcas are capable of pursuing, capturing and incapacitating white sharks. One predation event was filmed on drone, but the researchers believe that three other sharks may also have been killed. While a clip of the drone footage was aired in June, this was only part of an hour-long hunt of multiple sharks, as revealed by the exclusive helicopter footage, and the new paper offers more extensive footage, along with data from tags, drone surveys and shark-tour boats showing that white sharks fled from the Mossel Bay region of South Africa for several weeks. Orcas have been observed preying on other shark species, but direct observation of predation on white sharks locally has been lacking -- until now. "This behavior has never been witnessed in detail before, and certainly never from the air," said lead author Alison Towner, a senior shark scientist at Marine Dynamics Academy in Gansbaai, South Africa. Only two killer whales in South Africa have been previously linked to hunting white sharks, but never actually seen in action. Only one of those whales was observed in the new footage, along with four other killer whales. The authors believe that the involvement of these four new whales suggests the behavior may be spreading. The study also gives new insights into sharks' attempts to evade capture by orcas. On two occasions, orcas approached sharks closely and slowly, while the shark, instead of fleeing, stayed close to the orca, keeping it in view -- a common strategy that seals and turtles use to evade sharks. However, orcas are social and hunt in groups, and the researchers believe these behaviors may render the circling strategy ineffective for white sharks. "Killer whales are highly intelligent and social animals. Their group hunting methods make them incredibly effective predators," said marine mammal specialist and study co-author Dr. Simon Elwen, Director of Sea Search and a research associate at Stellenbosch University. The study confirmed that one infamous killer whale, locally known as "Starboard," was part of the pod and ate what was suspected to be a large piece of shark liver at the ocean surface. The novel footage also revealed how another killer whale bit into a white shark at the region of the liver. "I first saw Starboard in 2015 when he and his close-associated 'Port' were linked to killing seven gill sharks in False Bay. We saw them kill a bronze whaler [copper shark] in 2019 -- but this new observation is really something else," said David Hurwitz, a boat-based whale-watching operator from Simon's Town Boat Company. The new study also analyzed drone and cage dive boat survey data before and after these predation events. White sharks were seen on every survey day for the weeks prior to the predation event and multiple sharks were seen on the day of the predations. However, only a single white shark was seen in the 45 days after the predations, confirming a flight response by sharks. "We first observed the flight responses of seven gills and white sharks to the presence of killer whales Port and Starboard in False Bay in 2015 and 2017. The sharks ultimately abandoned former key habitats, which has had significant knock-on effects for both the ecosystem and shark-related tourism," said South African National Parks' shark expert and marine biologist, Dr. Alison Kock. Previous studies have documented how new behaviors spread among killer whales over time through cultural transmission. The authors suggest that if more killer whales adopt the practice of hunting white sharks, then the behavior will have far wider impacts on shark populations.
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Post by brobear on Oct 5, 2022 4:04:25 GMT -5
Dolphins Tried to 'Push' Surfer Being Stalked by 20-Foot Shark to Shore BY ROBYN WHITE ON 10/4/22 www.newsweek.com/dolphins-push-man-stalked-20-foot-shark-shore-1748681?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1-9g_3vNZf8ZloEwdgpDPS9lCm1Kz8WStHIVOfoh8K8um7rEwHSBhY4Ps#Echobox=1664884123 Bill Ballard was surfing at Wallagoot Beach, on the New South Wales coast, on September 25 when he noticed that the dolphins—which were feeding on a swarm of salmon in the area—began acting differently than usual, The Courier reported. Ballard had encountered dolphins in the area before, so he was well versed in their usual behavior. "It's hard to describe, but they kept coming up to the surface to look at me and also began swimming back and forward, coming closer and trying to push me towards the shore," he told the Australian newspaper. Shortly afterward, an aircraft—which had been watching the dolphins' feeding frenzy from above—swooped down to warn him that a 20-foot shark was lurking in the waters nearby, The Courier reported. As the two passengers hung out of the low-flying aircraft, they screamed at Ballard, "Shark, shark!" and pointed at a large shadow of something swimming nearby. Australia is one of the most likely places in the world for shark attacks to occur. In 2021, 12 unprovoked shark bites were reported, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File. Sharks do not look to hunt humans, but dangerous encounters can occur. A shark may approach a surfer after mistaking it for something it may want to eat or out of curiosity. In the New South Wales incident, the aircraft, which had flown too low to go up again, crashed into the water a few meters from the beach. Ballard, who had caught a wave that brought him to shore, went to check on the passengers' condition and spoke to one of them. "She kept saying, 'That shark was so close to you, so close, and it was the biggest one I've ever seen. It must have been around 20 feet long,'" Ballard told The Courier. "I am so thankful. They were like guardian angels coming to save me. "At first, I thought they must have mistaken it for a dolphin, and I kept asking if they were sure it wasn't, but the pilot said, 'No, I've been flying for years and I know exactly what a shark looks like," Ballard told the newspaper. Neither passenger was significantly injured in the crash. The species of the shark was not confirmed, but Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told Newsweek that this area of Australia is home to several species, including the "iconic big three—white, tiger and bull sharks." "Dolphins and sharks in the same area is not at all uncommon, as they tend to be after the same food or hunt in similar areas. Generally speaking, it's not in an animal's best interests to engage in conflict when it can be avoided, so it could be that the dolphins are keeping their distance and an eye on a potential competitor whilst still being able to get their fill of fish," Guida said. He continued: "I'm not a dolphin expert nor do I know what a dolphin thinks, but the dolphins may have even seen the surfer as a possible competitor for food, and 'pushing' him to shore could have been a way of intimidating him to stay away from their food rather than protecting him from a shark."
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Post by brobear on Oct 6, 2022 16:48:04 GMT -5
“Cretoxyrhina” One of the largest sharks and formidable predator 107 million years ago worldnewsroom.info/eng/107321/?fbclid=IwAR34ZfdBGEcjcrWPZ4tLNN5xj-tqiVLL0r0skzlZMFeDsSx7bPG56EN_NrA Nicknamed the Ginsu shark after the kitchen knife that slices and dices, Cretoxyrhina ripped apart prey with a mouth full of razor-sharp, bone-shearing teeth. Evidence suggests Cretoxyrhina fed on mosasaurs , plesiosaurs, and even the giant bony fish Xiphactinus, a fierce predator itself. Sharks are made of cartilage, which does not fossilize well. Much of what is known about them comes from their abundant and harder teeth. Cretoxyrhina's were smooth, curved, and grew more than two inches (five centimeters) long. Bite marks and teeth embedded in the bones of its prey suggest Cretoxyrhina chomped with brutal force. Estimates from a few calcified remains of cartilaginous Ginsu sharks suggest they grew upwards of 24 feet (7 meters) long, similar in size to modern great white sharks.
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